Hunted
by Gahlik
Summary: Short story I'm doing. Should only be like 3-4 chapters long. A family of 6 comes to a safehouse in the country. Little do they know, they brought a little more than they thought... T For violence, but not too much. Oh, and I don't own L4D. Obviously.
1. Arrival

**Hunted**

2 weeks after the initial Infection, A family of 6 makes their way to a mansion in the country, where they believe no one will find. Little do they know, they came with more than they thought…

The white SUV bounced randomly as it made its way across the rocky country road. The sky was a dull gray overcast, with few holes that the twilight sun may peek out of. It was completely silent in the car, except for a few sobs from its passengers every few minutes.

The driver, a short, middle-aged Caucasian man in his forties, smoked from a pipe regularly in order to calm his nerves. He had short, neat black hair, and lightning blue eyes. Every now and then, those eyes flitted to either side of the van, as if expecting something to pop out at any moment.

The woman in the passenger seat was asleep. She had a slight fever, and had a red tone on her otherwise blank white features. She was albino, something she took pride in, and, to use her words, thinks she is "Pretty cool looking". She, like the driver, was short, and extremely slim. Her long white hair was flowing as the air conditioner reached her face.

The four passengers were the ones making the sobbing sounds. All four of them looked exactly the same, with long brown hair and eyes, except one of them was female. Unlike the two people in the front, they were decently tall, all of them looking around seventeen. The three males, who had made a pact with eachother to always look the same at a young age, all had the exact same length and style of brown hair. Three of them were asleep, but the oldest (By only 2 minutes) was awake and aware, watching the surroundings pass the car on the outside.

As he was staring out the window, they passed a sign with an arrow pointing left. The real letters of the sign said "Private Property". However, they have been crossed out, and the words "Safehouse" were spray-painted on.

"Hey, dad! Did you see-"

"Yes, yes, I saw it." The father, who's name was Jonathon, cut off his child. He veered over to the left side of the road, and turned left at the fork.

"Wake up your siblings." Jonathon ordered, in an almost monotone. The oldest quadruplet, Achitaka, nodded. He turned around and yelled "Oi! Wake up! We're at a Safehouse!"

Instantly, the other two boys woke up. The girl, Artemis, simply whispered "Just five more minutes Onee-chan…" before closing her eyes and falling asleep again. The boy closest to her, Michael, leaned up to her ear. He took a deep breath, and then yelled "HUNTEER!" at he top of his lungs.

Artemis was instantly awake. She yelped, looked around quickly, and, upon realizing there wasn't actually a Hunter, punched her brother in the face. Hard.

Achitaka burst out laughing, while his brother next to him, Alex, simply frowned back at Michael.

"You shouldn't be doing that," he said. "It's not very nice, and in this situation, will make you the boy who cried wolf."

"Oh, lighten up, Alex. A Hunter isn't getting into the car." Michael said, shoving him playfully.

"You don't know that. I've heard stories about them. They can get into the most unexpected places very easily." Alex explained, still frowning.

"Oh, you're so depressing sometimes, Alex." Achitaka mumbled. "You gotta lighten up sometimes. You're just making it harder for us all…"

Alex stayed silent. He knew that's how they were taking it. But he also knew that they needed to know these things.

Jonathon leaned over to his wife, Angeline, and began gently shaking her awake. Angeline perked open her blood red eyes, and scanned the horizon before sitting up. "Where are we…?" She asked feebly, rubbing her eyes.

"We're on the road to a safehouse. We should be there in a couple of minutes, and we'll get you inside. Maybe they have some medicine for your fever." Jonathan said soothingly, rifling her hair. Angeline nodded and sat up a little straighter, staring straight ahead.

After a few minutes, she pointed. "There…it's pretty big."

"Pretty big" was an understatement. It was absolutely massive. It was made almost entirely out of stone, with many turrets shooting skyward. It's windows were large and held elaborate mosaics. It had to be at least 5 stories high. It looked more like a castle than anything.

As they got closer, they noticed that most of the windows had been barred up. The only ones that weren't were the huge ones that were a couple of stories up. Nothing was climbing through those anyway.

After a few minutes, they finally pulled up to a driveway. They parked there, next to a car with a blinking blue light turning on and off inside it.

"Idiot…that's the effing car alarm. If that goes off, the population in this area is gonna get a lot bigger." Jonathon said angrily. He pulled a silenced USP from his pocket, turned around, and threw it to Achitaka. Achitaka caught it expertly, cocked it, and looked through the ironsights for a few minutes before putting it in his pocket. Jonathon then slung his supressed MP5 from his back around to his chest, and held it high.

"We don't know whether anyone is here or not. Be ready…" He said quietly, taking the lead up to the door.

The door was replaced with the traditional metal red Safehouse indicating door. It was unlocked, but closed. Jonathon cautiously pushed it open, aiming his MP5 inside before doing anything else. After scanning the room, he walked in, and motioned for his family to follow…

And was instantly thrown to the ground by a sweatshirt wearing Hunter.

Jonathon screamed in shock and pain as the Hunter began ripping into him with his claws. Angeline shrieked and backed up, while her children simply stared in shock, at a complete loss at what to do. Undeterred, Achitaka brought the USP up, aimed, and fired at the Hunter.

He missed a fatal point. Barely. The Hunter screeched and looked up to Achitaka. He jumped off of the father, and pounced at the son. Achitaka managed to fire once before the Hunter was on top of him.

Angeline got her wits back. She screamed "NO!", and ran straight at Achitaka and the Hunter, punting the Infected off of Achitaka. The Hunter stumbled back, and Achitaka managed to make the killing shot onto it. The Hunter screeched one last time, fell back, and moved no more.

Angeline was instantly upon Achitaka, checking over his body for wounds. She found none, but asked "Are you hurt?" just in case.

"No, I'm not. He wasn't on me long enough to do anything."

"Good. Let's go find the medbay. And…keep your pistol ready.."

Hours later (With no Infected, thankfully) Jonathon was again conscious, and stable. He wouldn't be running any marathons, but he could move around. They hadn't found anyone else inside the place. It was decided that they would stay and welcome anyone else who came. If anyone else came.

It was now quite dark outside. After making sure all the defenses were in place, they all went to bed. The quadruplets in one room, the parents in the other.

Jonathon couldn't get to sleep very well. He kept tossing and turning in his bed. His limbs were feeling very painful, and he had a roaring headache. He tossed and turned, until finally his gaze rested on Angeline.

She looks so beautiful…

_She looks so…_

…_Delicious…_


	2. Revelation

**Hunted**

**Chapter 2**

_Revelation_

Achitaka was the first to wake up.

He leaned over on the bed and shook awake his three siblings, all of which gave a soft "Just five more minutes...", pulling the cover back over themselves. Achitaka sighed wearily and gave them those five more minutes before shaking them awake again. Alex and Micheal grudgingly woke up, but Artemis, determined to sleep, let off another "Just five more minutes...". Achitaka wouldn't hear of it, and shook her until she was fully awake.

After a few moment of debate, Alex was chosen to go wake their parents up, while the other three made their way to the kitchen to get breakfast, as well as to clear away the Hunter's body.

This plan was stable for all of 45 seconds, when a bloodcurdling scream from Alex made the other three double back and sprint towards the source of it.

"What? What happened?!" Achitaka yelled when he reached their parents room, first out of the three. Alex was standing there and staring into it, his mouth wide open, but no longer making any sound. The door was blown, not inward, but outward, as if something had tried to break out of it. Achitaka gulped and poked his head around the corner, then quickly pulled it back when he got a quick look.

It was a gruesome sight. The bed pillows and blankets were dishevelled, some of them across the room. But that's not what made him reel. The bed was covered in the bloody remains of what was, apparently, two humans, though there didn't seem to be enough left to make even one.

The other two arrived, asking the same questions as Achitaka. He pointed inside the room, and the other two had about the same reactions.

"Mom..." Micheal said, nearly sobbing.

"D-dad..." Artemis whispered quietly.

Achitaka and Alex simply stood there, stunned. After a moment, Artemis and Micheal hugged eachother very tightly, who were quickly joined by Alex. It took Achitaka a moment, but he eventually caved and joined the other three, all four of them sobbing gently.

The tender moment was ruined by the high pitched shriek of a Hunter down the four of them jumped and quickly broke apart, looking in the direction of the shriek. After standing perfectly still and quiet for about a minute, still nothing came down at them.

"C-come on...we have to get out of here..." Micheal whispered.

It took a moment for an answer to come. "Y-yes. Yes, yes we do. The car, I can drive...we need to get to the car." Achitaka whispered back. He turned and started to walk, as quietly as he could. "Stay behind me, and stay quiet...Alex, watch our back."

Alex nodded and followed last, walking behind them, and keeping his head turned over his shoulder, looking forward every few seconds to make sure he didn't bump into anything.

"How did that thing get in here?" Artemis whispered after a moment of walking.

"P-probably the one that attacked yesterday...maybe it didn't die..." Answered Micheal.

"No way, that's dead. We checked, remember? For breathing, heartbeat, and a pulse. Nothing." Achitaka countered.

"Then maybe it was another one? This place is huge, we could have easily missed it." Alex suggested.

Artemis nodded "Yeah, that's probably it."

Micheal, too, nodded in agreement "Yeah."

There was a short pause, except for the soft tapping of their socked feet hitting the ground.

"Where should we go when we get to the car?" Alex asked after a moment, glancing over his shoulder yet agian to make sure they weren't being followed.

"Away from here!" Artemis answered vehemently. "Anywhere but here!"

Achitaka nodded "What Artemis said."

The other two boys stayed quiet and nodded in understanding.

After a few more minutes of silent walking, they reached the kitchen. It was a very fancy kitchen, with many hanging shelves with fine china on them, mostly jsut to look good. The great number of drawers connected to the counter supplied the plates, bowls, and silverware with which to actually eat, and cabinets above held cups.

Achitaka flipped on the light. He moved over to the fridge and opened it up, scouring it for food that they could take with them. Alex stayed at the door to watch, while Artemis helped Achitaka look. Micheal, meanwhile, checked on the previous Hunter's body. Something was wrong with it, but in his panic, Micheal couldn't quite tell what.

"Hey guys, look at the Hunter..." He called over.

Achitaka and Artemis turned to look, while Alex stole a quick glance before looking back to the door to keep watch.

After a moment of wondering, Achitaka realized what he was trying to find. Or, rather, not find. "Guys...the hoodie...where is it?"

Micheal and Artemis blinked, then realization dawned on them as well. "What the...?"

"The hoodie's gone?" Alex asked, still refusing to tkae his eyes from the door.

"Yeah," Micheal answered. "Where could it have go-" But he was cut off in mid sentence by a flash of darkness, and then a bright, but only momentarily, flash of light, as the bulb in the kitchen burned out. All the lights down the hallway went out as well, though not actually burning out.

Artemis jumped in shock, hitting her head on one of the shelves with the fine china. It all flew into the air and crashed down on the floor, shattering with a much louder crash than seems possible for such small pieces of china. Artemis, meanwhile, yelped out and grabbed her head to soothe the pain a little.

Meanwhile, the crash of china made Micheal jump back, as well. He didn't regain his balance and fell right into the fridge, making a very loud banging as everything came falling out of it.

The Hunter screeched loudly and menacingly, coming closer with every passing moment.

"Oh no...I can't see!"

"What happened? Why are the lights out?"

"Achitaka? Alex? Micheal? Where are you?"

Then Achitaka's voice came, dominant over the other three "Be quiet! Stay calm!"

But Alex's voice countered "It doens't matter know, it knows where we are, and it can see in the dark! We have to move!"

There was a general and panicked murmur of agreement. After a few second of groping in the dark for everyone, the four of them made their way across the kitchen, and into another room. Alex silently shut the door when they entered. There was a window above. It was boarded up, but there were a few cracks letting in the light of the full moon. The overcast from before had thinned. The light from the moon showed a small living quarters, probably a guest room. It had a bed, a simple dresser, and a closet. Nothing notable about it.

Alex turned back to the other three and said silently "What happened? Why did the lights go out?"

"The generator went out, probably. I bet it hasn't been gassed in ages. Doesn't seem like there was anyone here to do it."

There was a loud bang on the door, and all of the children looked up. Surely the Hunter hadn't found them already, there had to be at least four doors leading into the kitchen...

But then Achitaka paled. There was a small window on the door, and the Hunter's face was inches from it, staring down at them all, the shine from the moon giving the already creepy eyes and eerie glow. But there was one more thing about the face that was disturbing.

The face was not some nameless stranger.

It was the face of his father.

And he was trying to break the door open, so that he could kil lthem all.


	3. Hunted

Hunted

**Chapter 3**

_**Hunted**_

_A/N: So, there was a slight logical error in the last chapter. They had just woken up, and yet the moon shone in the Hunter's eyes. My excuse is that they slept in the car all day, and therefor woke up before it was actually day time. _

"_Run!_"

Achitaka wasn't entirely sure who gave that order, but he followed it instantly and without question, without thought. The children turned and sprinted to the other side of the room, where there was another door waiting to be opened.

* * *

The door had taken a while, but it wasn't too late. He had their scent. He knew where they were, and he knew where they were going.

If he reached them, he could slow his pace...in the darkness, be impossible to differentiate.

When he was close enough, he bit his finger, covering it with his saliva and blood. He reached out...

And then pulled back. Barely a scratch. Probably doesn't even hurt. He stopped, turned back, and sprinted away.

Yes...he knew where they were going. There was no other way.

* * *

Micheal winced slightly and put his hand over the back of his neck. "Who scratched me?"

"That might've been me, I'm sorry."

"Yeah...whatever, it's alright

"This...this leads to that lab we found, doesn't it?"

"Yeah...yeah, it does."

The quadruplets had sprinted for a while, but they soon figured out the Hunter wasn't after them, not at this very moment. He would've caught up by now if he was.

"He's toying with us. Playing." Artemis whispered, "He could've easily caught us, but he didn't."

"They always do that," Alex said. "They're well known for being very intelligent."

Though they knew the Hunter wasn't after them, they still moved swiftly.

"That lab...it has blast doors, right?"

"On one side."

"Then we'll just barricade the other. If it has blast doors, it must have emergency supplies."

"What about your pistol, Achitaka?"

"I left it in the room..."

"There's no hope..."

Everyone turned to look at Micheal.

"What?"

"There's no hope. This is a Hunter. These things have killed people far more capable than us. _Armed_ people, more capable than us."

"Micheal, stop."

"Calm down..." Artemis soothed. "Please calm down...we don't need to hear this...we don't _want_ to hear this..."

"But there's no hope. We're dead."

"Micheal. Stop i-"

"No, you stop Achitaka. You're not a leader. You're not a fighter."

"I know I'm not. I'm not pretending that I am. I just want us to get out of here..."

There was a short pause.

"Micheal..."

The four of them stopped, almost as one.

"Please...just listen for once."

And then Micheal fell over.

Being in the back, this meant that he toppled over Artemis, who was direcly in front of him. She fell over, landing with an "Oomph"

Artemis turned back and popped Micheal on the back of his head "Geez Micheal, what's wrong with you? Watch out!'

No answer.

"Micheal, come on. It didn't hurt that bad. This is no time to joke around, we need to move!"

Still nothing. Artemis frowned and leaned forward, her voice now sounding slightly concerned "Micheal..?"

And still, nothing. Artemis pushed his body over, and then jumped back, letting out a soft shriek.

Achitaka and Alex, who were simply watching, jumped back as well, not because they saw Micheal, but because of Artemis' reaction.

It took a few seconds, but Achitaka got the wits to ask "What? What's wrong?" He moved forward, and then paled slightly.

His eyes were...different. They were not the pale green that use to adorn his face, not even 5 minutes ago. They were grey. Complete grey. No iris, no pupil, no whites. Just grey. And they were glowing slightly.

They didn't know how or why, but they knew what. Micheal had somehow become infected.

For the moment, he was peaceful, almost like a sleeping boy. But the other three knew better. They knew what would happen if they waited, and so they didn't. They moved on, not daring to make a sound in case their father, or Micheal, would hear.

* * *

They reached the lab quickly after that. The blast door was quickly shut behind them. It turned out there was a blast door at the other entrance, so they shut that, too.

After that, they sat down in a triangle, and, one by one by one, began to cry. It echoed around the vast room, full of tables, computers, beakers, vials, and syringes.

There was no shame. All three of them let it out, until there was no more. When they finished, they simply stayed with eachother, a small comfort in the horror of the mansion they found themselves in.

And as it did before, a shriek form the thing that had caused their horrors abruptly cut their mourning.

The Hunter, their father, had pounced into view and stayed there, blocking their way to one of the blast doors. The only other way to go was through the other blast door, the way they had just came. Achitaka swore he could almost see a smirk on the face of the Hunter.

It started jumping toward them, from table to table. Slowly at first, and then steadily getting faster.

Achitaka was the first to react. He bolted for the blast door they had entered from. He didn't think he had ever run faster in his life. Artemis and Alex quickly followed suit.

The Hunter stopped jumping and watched this development, apparently curious.

* * *

Though he knew exactly what they were doing.

He jumped off the table he had landed on, which was rather small, and started to pick it up.

Though the evolution of the Green Flu did not give him the amazing muscle of his larger brother, which humans referred to as the Tank, it did grant him more muscular power than any human could hope to achieve.

He lifted it with ease, and let it fly.

* * *

Achitaka was slightly faster than the other two. Alex was faster than Artemis, and as such, Artemis trailed behind, by only about a foot.

That foot seemed to become much longer when the table flew threw the air at them.

Artemis screamed and picked up her pace. There was a loud _crash_ as the table impacted with the floor. It missed Artemis by nearly ten feet.

But it impacted other tables. They seemed to move far more than they should have, One of them impacted with Artemis and toppled her, the table still going and landing on top of her. She felt something sharp stab her arm, and she closed her eyes. She knew it was over.

And so did Alex. He had to grab on to Achitaka to stop him from running to her. He stopped struggling after a few seconds, turned, and ran toward the blast door.

* * *

The Hunter, meanwhile, had jumped to Artemis. He laid a hand under her head and pulled it up. This one was not getting away from him. It would be a meal, and it would be a good one.

But something about her scent made him stop...something was wrong.


	4. Bewitched

**Hunted**

**Chapter 4**

_**Bewitched**_

They ran, and they didn't look back.

Michael still hadn't gotten up. That was good. They rushed right past his body, and it stayed that way.

Dimly, Achitaka remembered that he had never seen someone his age as an infected. Perhaps the Green Flu was fatal to children...?

They reached the kitchen without further incident, which means that their father was still with Artemis.

_He's not our father anymore..._

That thought crossed his mind for the first time since this had begun.

_He's Infected. A Hunter. He is not our father, and never will be again. _

"The car..."

Achitaka heard Alex as though from a distance. For a moment, he didn't really understand what he said, but then he remembered.

"Oh, yes. The car...we have to...to get to it."

"Achitaka..."

"Yeah?"

Alex didn't say anything for a short while. As he was listening, Achitaka noticed that daylight had broken. Sunlight was coming through the windows.

_At least we can see him coming now._

"Do you think we can make it?"

"I...I don't know. The Hunter stopped following us for a little while, so may-"

His words were interrupted by the _smash_ of what sounded like the fine china.

They both stopped dead, listening hard. But they didn't hear anything else. Were they really that close to the kitchen already?

Alex must have been thinking the same thing. "Must have been running faster than we thought..."

"Yeah.."

They approached the kitchen slowly. This was a very bad position. If there was another Infected in there, they would have to run right through it.

"I'm gonna take a quick look..."

"Wait, Achi, what if there's something dangerous in there?"

"Just a peek under the door, I won't go in unless it's safe."

Achitaka took a deep breath and slowly walked over to the door. He got on his knees, put his head to the floor, and looked under the crack.

As far as he could tell, there was no one in the room. However, he couldn't see the whole room from under the crack, mostly due to the small windows which let in little light on the floor, made worse all the more so by the fact that they were mostly boarded up.

He got up and turned to Alex "There's nothing in there that I can see. Either the thing that broke just fell off something, or whoever - or whatever - was in there has left. I think it's safe."

"You _think_, or you _know_?"

"I think."

"That's not good enough."

"We don't have much of a choice, do we?"

There was a short pause as Alex weighed the options "No...there really isn't. I guess it's the best we've got."

Achitaka put his hand to the doorknob, and then turned it.

But he stopped before actually opening it.

"Alex, do you hear that?"

"Hear what?"

"Sssh, listen..."

They stayed silent, straining hard.

"I definitely hear something...yelling, maybe?"

"It kind of sounds like sis. But...it can't be."

Achitaka let go of the door and started slowly moving the other way. "Not yelling...who's making that?"

It was definitely a voice making some sort of strained sound, but they couldn't really tell what it was. But whatever sound it was making was melodic, and a little hypnotic.

"It's definitely not the Hunter..."

They started moving closer to where they came from, trying to figure out what wa making the sound.

Eventually, Alex realized what they were doing. "Hey, wait a minute. We aren't going back there, are we?"

"No, not all the way. I just wanna figure out what that is..."

They slowly made their way back toward the lab. As they got closer, they could hear it much better. It was human.

More importantly, it was female.

"Im-..impossible. Artemis could be alive!"

Achitaka smiled slightly. "Maybe...but if she is, she won't be in good condition."

"The military is holding out just about an hour from this place, though. If we can get her to the car, then she'll be fine!"

They determined that it was definitely Artemis. She was crying. Amazing that they could hear it all the way form the kitchen.

In the joy of hearing their sister, when they thought all was lost, they didn't stop to think for a second as to why the Hunter would keep her alive.

They entered the lab, and spotted her near the overturned tables. She was bleeding, but not very much. She didn't look up when they entered, but continued to cry.

"Artemis..?"

She still didn't look up, or make any kind of noise or motion that indicated she heard Alex speaking.

"Artemis, are you okay?"

Still no response.

Alex approached her. As he got near, she made a small, surprised grunt and turned his direction. Her dishevelled hair covered her face, and some of her clothes were tattered.

"Artemis, come on...answer me."

She started to stand up, groaning as she did so.

Alex placed a hand on her shoulder. "Are you okay?"

And then all Hell broke loose.

Artemis threw her head back and, in the fraction of a second that Alex had left standing, he noticed that an empty syringe was attatched to her arm, hanging off of it almost comically. He also saw that her eyes were no longer the dull green they used to be, but now a vivid, glowing red.

She screamed, a deafening wave of unholy sound that no human being could possibly utter. She slammed her body into Alex, using her newly formed, nearly foot-long claws to cut his stomach, and he flew backward about five feet, and rolled over four times. He finally came to a halt on his back, and started to back away from his advancing sister.

Achitaka, meanwhile, had jumped backwards, and tripped over a chair that he stationed himself in front of. He heard a _snap _as his ankle broke, and he blacked out as his head hit the floor.

Alex continued to back away, and Artemis regarded him with a slightly tilted head. Alex hastily got to his feet, continuing to back away. Artemis followed him, keeping pace.

He glanced over to where Achitaka was lying on the floor. Not realizing his brother's current state, he muttered "Achi...please hel-!"

It was the last thing he ever said.

Artemis screamed again and ran toward him, bearing her claws down on him. He was helpless against her brutal assault. She swiped again, and again, and again, until he was reduced to a barely audible moaning, bleeding figure on the floor. And still she did not relent. She continued clawing him, goring him as if he were paper, continuing her unholy wailing throughout.

Finally, after almost five minutes, she ceased. The remains in front of her, were there not pieces of clothnig strewn within them, could have belonged to any living thing on the planet. They were impossible to differentiate. Even the bones were completely and unrecognizably shattered. She turned, gazing over the other source of commotion, who was still unconscious near the chair.

After determining he was no longer a disturbance, she walked back to he previous position and sat down again, continuing her endless lament.


End file.
